Italian-American Group Calls For VH1 Show To End

FAIRFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Fresh off a successful push for minor changes to "Jersey Shore," a New Jersey-based Italian-American group called Tuesday for VH1 to pull the plug on its show "My Big Friggin' Wedding."

UNICO National says the show is a "big racist stereotype of Italian-Americans."

Andre DiMino, the Fairfield, N.J.-based group's chief media executive calls the cast the "worst bunch of bad-acting, insipid individuals portraying themselves as trashy, drunken, low-class, bimbos and buffoons."

The story lines follow five couples as they plan their weddings.

Most of the cast members are Italian-American.

The show began airing last month.

During the long run of "The Sopranos" on HBO, UNICO complained about the way it portrayed Italian-Americans.

And since last year, UNICO has campaigned against "Jersey Shore," another show about misbehaving, self-obsessed young people that is on MTV.

The producers of that show have agreed to cut back on shots of the Italian flag and not refer in promos to the cast members as "guidos."

DiMino said the group sometimes worries that it's helping attract more attention to shows it would rather people didn't watch.

"There's no question that there's a double-edged sword," DiMino said. "When you have such a blatant act of this type of stereotyping, it needs to be called out."

DiMino said that if VH1 doesn't respond, he'll make his group's case to the show's advertisers.

Neither VH1 nor 495 Productions, which makes the show, had an immediate response on Tuesday.

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